Chinese dialogues by level, with audio
Short dialogues about everyday situations, played by several voices. Every lesson gives the Chinese text, its pinyin reading, the English translation and the recording. Hover or tap a Chinese word to see how it is pronounced and what it means.
The collection currently holds 135 dialogues, spread over five levels. Start with level A if you are a beginner: the progression is meant to be followed in order.
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Level ABeginner
The first situations: greeting someone, buying something, asking a price, telling the time. Short sentences, the first hundred words, and a voice that takes its time.
35 dialogues
- At the morning market
- Asking the way
- Ordering in a restaurant
- and 32 more
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Level BElementary
Getting by: describing your day, comparing, explaining why, complaining politely. The sentences grow longer and the verbs take their complements.
35 dialogues
- Looking for a flat
- The security deposit
- Opening a bank account
- and 32 more
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Level CIntermediate
Ordinary conversation at an ordinary pace: work, health, money, the small troubles of daily life, with the turns of phrase the textbooks leave out.
35 dialogues
- The lease to sign
- Negotiating the rent
- Switching insurers
- and 32 more
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Level DAdvanced
Subjects that call for a point of view: a contract, a lease, a career decision. The vocabulary leaves the concrete behind and the sentences take shape.
15 dialogues
- The mortgage
- To buy or to rent
- Retirement and the children
- and 12 more
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Level EFluent
The Chinese heard on the radio and between colleagues: arguing, qualifying, disagreeing, quoting a figure, joking. The pace is that of a real conversation.
15 dialogues
- Artificial intelligence and jobs
- The falling birth rate
- The emptying towns
- and 12 more
How to work through a dialogue
- Listen to the whole dialogue once or twice without reading.
- Listen again while following the Chinese text, without looking at the translation.
- Go back line by line: every line has its own play button.
- Hover over the words you do not recognise to see their reading and meaning.
- Hide the pinyin, then the translation, and listen one last time.